Anne M. Cappella is a partner in Weil’s Silicon Valley office, where she focuses on patent counseling and litigation involving complex and cutting-edge technologies.
Ms. Cappella has a uniquely diverse intellectual property counseling practice, which includes advising clients on pre-litigation patent strategies, technical aspects of patent licensing arrangements, patent acquisitions, and intellectual property due diligence for M&A transactions.
Clients also call on Ms. Cappella to oversee and lead the most technical aspects of patent litigations, including performing technical analysis to ensure solid claim construction, infringement, and validity arguments; overseeing technical experts and interacting with company engineers; and managing post-grant strategy and proceedings. Ms. Cappella has extensive experience representing clients in high-stakes multi-patent and multi-district litigations, as well as trade secret actions. She litigates in federal courts and arbitration proceedings, and has particularly deep experience before the U.S. International Trade Commission.
Ms. Cappella uses her strong technical background, including a B.S. in electrical engineering with minors in computer science and mathematics and prior work experience as an engineer and consultant for IBM, to advise clients on a diverse range of technology. She has represented smartphone manufacturers and wireless carriers in proceedings involving data encoding, memory, multi-touch, WiFi, GPS, data synchronization, 3G/LTE cellular data modulation, and digital camera technologies. She also has represented other technology-focused clients in proceedings involving wireless, integrated circuit design, memory, Ethernet and DSL technology, and semiconductor processing and packaging. Some of Ms. Cappella’s representative clients include leading smartphone manufacturers, Microsoft, Intel, Amkor, and T-Mobile, among others.
Ms. Cappella is widely regarded as a leader in the field. In 2014 and 2017, Ms. Cappella was named to the Daily Journal’s list of the Top Women Lawyers in California. The publication, which recognizes the 100 most accomplished women lawyers in the state, noted that “Cappella uses her background as an electrical engineer and a love for complicated technology to help her clients fend off patent infringement claims.” Since 2016 Ms. Cappella has been recognized as a recommended lawyer for patent litigation by Legal 500. She also has been included in The Recorder’s list of the top Women Leaders in Law and was named a “2016 Women of Influence” by the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Ms. Cappella is actively involved in a number of initiatives aimed at bettering the careers of women lawyers. She is a member of the Firm’s global Women@Weil leadership board, a Firm affinity group that focuses on supporting women lawyers. Ms. Cappella also is a formal mentor to several senior women associates, and a regular participant in women law student and engineer mentoring programs.